Mitchells & Butlers bucks gloom to report sales lift

Mitchells & Butlers (M&B), which owns chains including All Bar One, O'Neills and Browns Restaurants has reported an upsurge in summer sales, in a trading update issued today.

Mitchells & Butlers (M&B), which owns chains including All Bar One, O'Neills and Browns Restaurants has reported an upsurge in summer sales, in a trading update issued today.

The pub operator said sales were "resilient" despite current economic conditions, with same outlet like-for-like sales growing 1.3% in the nine weeks to 20 September. Drinks sales, which suffered a dip in sales in the first year of the smoking ban, were up 0.3%, whilst food sales were up a stronger 3.6%.

M&B said that around two thirds of total sales were now generated by a food driven visit, adding that food sales had been the main source of turnover growth since the introduction of the smoking ban in England in July 2007. Beer now accounts for only around a quarter of sales in its pubs.

Despite the positive announcement, M&B admitted that sales would need to grow by around 3% in order to achieve a similar level of operating profit for next year.